Check out any acknowledgements page and see that every writer benefits from a little encouragement now and then. There are moments when we writers doubt our work. Sometimes something needs to change in our manuscripts. Sometimes we just need to be a bit braver and press “send” on our submissions. (Eek!)   I am fortunate […]

It’s often difficult to describe what it is, technically, that brings a manuscript to life. In early drafts, we try to use interesting verbs and unique adverbs to describe our characters’ actions and give them personality. We make comparisons to invoke all the reader’s senses and make a setting feel real. Yet in this, it’s […]

Somehow starting the New Year with a ten-day-old baby inspired me to set ambitious goals for 2013. Call it postpartum adrenaline, I guess.   The pace of the year always picks up during the last two months, so now is as good a time as any to take stock of my progress in 2013.   […]